Remembering the 05/06 Sale Sharks team who were Premiership Champions
Jason Robinson and Philippe Saint Andre lift the Premiership Trophy after Sale defeated Leicester Tigers 45-20 in the 2006 Final
Credit: Tony Marshall EMPICS Sport PA
On the 27 May 2006, Crazy by Gnarls Barkley was top of the UK Charts, Tom Hanks and The Da Vinci Code led the way in the box office (X-Men: The Last Stand would knock it off that weekend) and Sale Sharks were crowned champions of England at a damp Twickenham.
It was a deserved victory for the Mancunians, who finished the regular season eight points clear of the Tigers in second and comfortably defeated the Leicester side again 45-20 in the Premiership Final, suffering only five defeats all season.
Backed by ambitious owners Brian Kennedy and Ian Blackhurst, and under the canny coaching of Philippe Saint Andre, who had replaced Jim Mallinder, they played an exciting brand of rugby that saw them score the most overall points in the league and have the highest points difference.
A northern staple of rugby union in the UK, alongside Leeds Tykes (as they were then known) and Newcastle Falcons, it should arguably have been a watershed moment to take their place at the top table among the elite sides of English rugby.
However, the Sharks have not made the playoffs since in the intervening years, even flirting with relegation in the 09/10 season which saw them finish only four points clear of basement club Worcester Warriors.
With the good times possibly returning again in Greater Manchester, with Sale sitting pretty in second before the coronavirus induced hiatus of the Gallagher Premiership, The Flanker takes a look back at their golden team of 05/06.
One of the best packs in Premiership History?
France International Number 8 Sebastian Chabal was a key factor in Sale’s Premiership success
Credit: Getty Images
Only two defeats in their first 10 matches saw Sale sitting towards the top of the table by Christmas, a position they never really squandered all the way until the post season playoff matches.
Up front, set piece power was a dominant factor of their game. Andrew Sheridan, one of the best loosehead scrummagers England has ever seen, was at the peak of his powers and would still now give opposing props nightmares.
Although he only made 10 appearances before injury curtailed his campaign, Frenchmen Lionel Faure was an able deputy to slip into his rather large number 1 shirt.
Alongside him at hooker was Andy Titterell, who toured New Zealand with the British and Irish Lions in the Summer of 2005, and Stuart Turner, who was a better player than his three England caps suggest.
If those front rowers aren’t fearsome enough, French International hooker Sebastien Bruno would share game time with Titterell and Scotland capped Barry Stewart was an able deputy to Turner.
Bruno’s honours in particular are impressive even without this Premiership win. A Six Nations Grand Slam with France in 2002, alongside another championship win four years later, can be added to his European Challenge Cup (2005 - with Sale) and Heineken Cup (2013 - with Toulon) medals. Not bad for a backup.
In the engine room, Argentina’s enforcer Ignacio Fernanez Lobbe and Chris Jones, another who could have won more international honours, dovetailed nicely with club legend Dean Schofield and a young Christian Day to give ballast to a meaty pack.
Both Lobbe and Day went on to play for Northampton Saints while Schofield had a fruitful few years in the south of France with Toulon before hanging up his boots.
Now onto to Sale’s iconic back row. At blindside was the versatile Scotland captain Jason White, with Magnus Lund patrolling the openside and at eight was one of the most enigmatic players ever to play the game, Sébastien Chabal.
White and Chabal (known as “The Caveman) made over 200 appearances for the club as a duo, with the hard hitting pair at home either in the second or back row.
With Lund’s scavenging, White’s fearsome tackling and Chabal’s ferocious ball carrying, all three complemented eachother marvellously and drove the team onto their title win.
Jason Robinson and Sale’s lethal back division
The halfback pairing, Richard Wigglesworth and Charlie Hodgson, contained two Premiership legends, with Hodgson the all-time Premiership Points Scorer with a whopping 2625 points to his name across his spells with Sale and Saracens. As Jack Colwill of The Flanker recently said, Hodgson could “kick anything that moved”
Not to be outdone by his number 10, Wigglesworth, a mere youngster at 22 back then, holds the record for the most Premiership Appearances with 286 and was still going strong this season for Saracens.
In the 2005/06 season, they rumbled their pack around the field with ease as the pair were, between them, the best open field tactical kickers in the business, while Tonga International Sililo Martens could add x-factor at scrum half off the bench.
That’s not to say this Sale team would kick their opponents to death as they had real quality in the outside Hodgson and Wigglesworth, especially in the back three.
In the centres, club legend Jos Baxendell had retired heading into the 2005/06 season and Samoan International Elvis Seveali’i arrived to fill the void.
A very skillful operator Seveali’i, who had a keen eye for a gap and a great passing game, had been a clinical try-scorer for Bath and the Ospreys previously and carried that on at Sale.
His partnership with Welsh capped Mark Taylor, who himself was a slippery runner that could glide past players with ease, provided good support to Hodgson who famously took the ball right to the game line.
It was the back three where Sale excelled however, with the holy trinity of Oriol Ripol, Mark Cueto and Jason Robinson still wistfully admired by Sharks fans.
Ripol, a Spaniard who also turned out for Saints and Warriors in the Premiership, would always come off his wing looking for the ball, with his work rate making up for his short stature (only 5”8)
On the other wing, Cueto was a born finisher. He was Chris Ashton before Chris Ashton, a winger who always seemed to pop up on the shoulder or was in support of a break to grab a score. Cueto is second only to Tom Varndell for all-time Premiership Tries with 90. In essence, he has enough finishes to rival Helsinki.
Finally at fullback, Robinson captained Sale in the 2005/06 season and was so often the difference-maker for the Sharks in the campaign.
Whenever he got his hands on the ball, crowds would lean forward in anticipation as his fast moving meaty legs mesmerised defences, always operating in order to manufacture an opening.
Jason Robinson dives over for a score against Wasps in 2006
Credit: Sale Sharks
He became the first player to lift both the Premiership and Super League trophies during his career and remains a true code hopping great.
Robinson will go down as one of the best players to have ever donned the Sale jersey, regardless of his 2003 Rugby World Cup win with England.
Notable mentions have to go to another Sale hero in Steve Hanley, a one club man who is fifth on that previously mentioned Premiership try scorers list, and X-Factor’s Ben Foden, who came off the bench to play at scrum-half in the final.
It would proved to be this group of players heyday, with the side slowly broken up in the intervening years.
In the final, they swatted aside Tigers would such ease it would be hard to believe that they wouldn’t go on be regular end of season contenders, running in four tries in a mesmeric display.
If the season does get underway again, whenever that may be, the class of 19/20 have a real chance of joining Robinson and his men in stitching their names in Sale’s long and illustrious history.
However, the 2005/06 Sale Sharks side remains one of the greatest and most iconic teams in Premiership history. I mean, any side with Sebastian Chabal in it has to be well liked, right?
